Suck It In or Lose It?

Sorted under body image, media on August 20, 2008

Update: Laurie, co-founder of kirtsy has left a comment on this post explaining that kirtsy’s ad space was hijacked and that they did not approve this ad. kirtsy is currently in the process of refunding the buyer’s money for this ad and getting it removed as soon as possible.

Thank you for clearing this up, Laurie!

suck it in or lose it weight loss ad I was perusing the stories submitted to kirtsy, a social media site for women, yesterday and while I was reading stories deemed popular by women, an ad caught my eye. Yes an ad, something that my mind usually doesn’t even register due to all ads looking the same and my mind possessing a talent to simply ignore entire halves of websites trying to sell me stuff. Upon seeing this particular ad I literally had to do a double take and find out why, exactly, my stomach was featured in an ad.

Of course it wasn’t my stomach, but it surely looked like it; so much in fact that upon first glance, the boyfriend even thought kirtsy had somehow obtained a clear picture of my stomach. Are they stalking me? Hiding outside my bedroom window with their cameras poised waiting for me to put on a pair of jeans? Nope, it’s just another ad made to make women feel bad about their bodies to the point where if they see an ad such as the one pictured to the left here, look down and notice that their stomach looks eerily familiar to the picture, they will surely opt to buy into whatever weight loss product this site “for women” is pushing on women who have low self confidence.

The reason women have low self confidence when they look in the mirror (or avoid mirrors completely) is because sites that claim to be for women are pushing products that are part of a multi-billion dollar industry profiting off of self-loathing.

This ad simply states that there are two options when your jeans don’t fit–Suck it in and be uncomfortable or lose the weight. I don’t know about you, but when my pants don’t fit, I opt to get a bigger pair of pants! I know there are still stores out there who sell pants, right? Why isn’t that an option?

Women out there who find that their stomachs look like the one in the ad or women whose stomachs don’t look like that but feel bad about themselves anyway, go get yourself a bigger pair of pants because you are beautiful and perfect just the way you are. Stop letting a multi-billion dollar industry tell you that you don’t look good. Keep the money you would spend on a weight loss product and go buy yourself something nice–Like some kick ass lingerie!

So kirtsy, you suck and you can lose that ad!

Upon closer inspection of kirtsy’s ad space while writing an email to them about their bullshit ad (sharethelove at kirtsy.com for anyone else who is interested), I noticed an ad for Carson Kressley’s TV show How to Look Good Naked with the following text placed below it:

“The refreshing thing about this show (How to Look Good Naked) is that we’re saying, ‘You know what? You look great just the way you are. We want you to be happy being who you are, and you don’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to be a zero.’”

Yes kirtsy, we look great just the way we are and we most definitely should be happy being who we are–Even if our stomachs look like the one placed in another one of your ads. I know money for advertising space is swell, but shouldn’t you be a little less hypocritical when accepting ads?



You May Also Enjoy:

  • I couldn't agree more with you. The thing is that most of the women out there care what other people think about that.May be they need to look at the situation from a different angle. In my country there is a saying that "there are passengers for any train". The question is "do you wanna waste time trying to look like a super model which more often than not will not happen or do you want to start looking for people who like people not because they look perfect but because they like you as a human being?
  • Perhaps these are our inner feelings which make us comfortable or not at all. My wife has the same size of stomach but I have no problems nor she has. I think this is just a state of mind and we should avoid those promotions.
  • Good for kirtsy for getting it taken care of, but what a shitty ad!

    I might have mistaken that for my own stomach, but I'm sporting some lovely stretch marks that help to distinguish my own mid-section from that one.

    The ad just doesn't make sense. Don't they know that there are pants out there to fit gigantic bellies like the (what do you think? size 14?) belly? Looking like that doesn't mean we're doomed to never be able to squeeze into clothing.
  • Dear Everyone --

    We agree! Our ad space was "hijacked" and some ads were approved by someone other than us. You can be certain we would NEVER have approved an ad like this and we have been working to refund this buyer's money and remove the ad from our site.

    Please know we love you just the way you are. No matter the size of any of your body parts.

    Thanks for your post. We love feedback -- would be nowhere without it.

    Laurie
    co-founder of kirtsy
  • Thank you very much for your comment, Laurie. It is relieving to know that kirtsy would have never approved this ad or an ad like this. I will be adding an update to the top of this post in case anyone makes snap judgments about kirtsy without reading the comments. It's horrible to hear that your ad space was hijacked, but hopefully you refund the buyer's money soon. Thank you again for clearing this up.
  • kgjames
    So I wonder what they suggest when the problem is that the jeans no longer fit over the arse. I haven't figured how to suck my ass in.
  • Being the social media junkie that I am ... I was about to head over to kirtsy to check it out, but now I think I'll just skip it.
blog comments powered by Disqus